We’ve been stood up…Does it matter?…

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The sun reflecting on the water this morning.
Every Wednesday morning our cab driver, Estevan, has arrived promptly at 9:00 am to take us to the village to do our grocery shopping, which includes a trip to the vegetable stand.

Arising this morning at 6:30, we hopped out of bed, anxious to start our and tidy up before the maids arrive. They’re scheduled to clean our villa Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 9:00 am. They seldom arrive within three to four hours of 9:00 am, always sweet and apologetic for the delay. We don’t mind. Its the Belizean way.    

Today, windy but cool and less humid.

Also, this morning, we’d invited a lovely couple we met, Lori and Larry, for coffee at 8 am, before we’d take off with Estevan at 9. They have been staying in one of the hotel rooms at LaruBeya and their coffee pot is not quite as good as ours. 

This is their last morning here before moving to the Singing Sands Resort where we’d had Valentine’s night dinner, located about five miles north in Maya Beach, owned by our neighboring resort, Robert’s Grove.  With Easter week and spring break upon us, most resorts are totally booked, including ours resulting in the necessity of Lori and Larry moving to Singing Sands.

Saturday night, we joined Lori and Larry for dinner in the village, riding along in their rented golf cart.  It was a pleasant evening of idle chatter with yet another friendly couple from Canada.  The dinner was mediocre with small portions and no alcohol service so we ended up at a cute little ice cream shop called Tutti Fruitti, a favorite for tourists and locals alike.  

Tutti Frutti: hand cranked - doesn't get any better!
The ice cream display at Tutti Fruitti, a quaint ice cream shop in the village of Placencia.
Looking at the colorful array of luscious flavors, I sighed, knowing this was not for me although I did get a fair share of “voyeur” action watching Tom savor his plastic cup of chocolate chip mint, a former favorite of mine.  Oh, well

Recently, Tom and I decided we’ll only write restaurant reviews here in our blog that are favorable. As we’ve come to know and appreciate the people of Belize, and due to our huge readership worldwide, we feel it is unfair to “bash” a local restaurant, which ultimately may cause them a loss of business. 

There are plenty of other candid reviews online that that tourist can read to form their personal decisions. Who knows? Perhaps it was an off night. Perhaps the chef was under the weather or perhaps, they were running out of food, resulting in the minuscule portions. Why complain? Why fill ourselves with negative energy when there is so much positivity surrounding us?

Another unusual piece of driftwood near our villa.

When this morning our new friends had overslept and didn’t arrive until 8:30 for coffee, with more apologies than necessary, the maids showed up at 8:32 and… Estevan stood us up for the first time as we waited around for an hour fully dressed and ready to go.  We looked at one another and shrugged. Oh well.
It just didn’t matter.

If our van driver doesn’t get us to our ship in time for departure, that would matter.  If we arrive at a vacation rental for which we’ve paid in advance and there’s a vacant lot at the address, that would matter.

But, the rest?  Nah.  We’ve chosen a path in our lives that is wrought with the potentiality of rampant human error, bad service, bad food, late schedules,  document issues, collapsed steps, and more.  How we handle these scenarios defines our depth and breadth of our experiences. 

We chose happiness. Tolerance is the price one pays for happiness. A small price to pay.

Holes in our itinerary…

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The piece of driftwood decorates the beach by our villa. The sidewalk to the center-left is the sidewalk directly in front of our villa.

Yesterday afternoon while lounging on the veranda, swimsuits still damp from playing in the pool, we contemplated our upcoming itinerary. Having canceled the one month stay at the stone house in France for April 18, 2014, to May 17, 2014, left an almost three-month gap in our schedule to open up.

We had intended to use this gap to take a long term cruise out of South Africa on March 1, 2014, getting us back to Europe.  A number of such cruises had been posted for 2013 and we’d hoped they’d reappear in 2014.  So far, not the case.  Cruises appear to be posted approximately 18 months in advance. 

The only cruises available from Cape Town, South Africa during the time frame would cost $25,000+ for the two of us for a balcony cabin, not an expense we are interested in bearing for a mere 15 days.  There were a few less expensive options, but on lower-rated cruise lines which we’ve chosen to avoid in light of multiple negative reviews.

So, here we are, with a gap from March 1, 2014 to May 15, 2014, without a decision made.  With less than a year remaining, we knew we’d better get our butts in gear!” 

The shaded grounds of Laru Beya, all-natural vegetation planted in sand.

On May 15, 2014, we’re scheduled to arrive on the island of Madeira, Portugal to stay until July 31, 2014, with another open spot until October 26, 2014 when we board a cruise onto our eventual destination of Hawaii for the holidays when our kids and grandkids will visit for Christmas, staying until May 15, 2015. Beyond that, we haven’t decided where we’ll go, but we will continue on. It’s just too early to secure vacation homes.

Many laughed about our advance planning beginning in January 2012.  We didn’t.  As we’ve experienced life on the move, we realized it was none too early.  When most travelers plan a two-week vacation, it is not unlikely to plan a year in advance to ensure preferred reservations in preferred locations.  (Airlines, won’t allow booking reservations prior to 330 days before travel, not an issue that’s been a concern to us).

We learn as we go.  We’ve accepted the reality that we will not be able to cruise to all of our locations for a few reasons  1).  Cruises aren’t necessarily available when and where we’d like to travel; 2). The cost may be prohibitive if they do.  With 9 cruises booked ahead of us over the next 20 months, we’re satisfied with our choices. 

Based on future plans, we’ll be required to fly no less than 7 times over the next few years.  We’ve accepted this reality, determined to gain a more cavalier attitude about airports, baggage fees, and the actual flying. 

Ditching the three large suitcases to be shipped to my dear sister Julie in California on April 13th while we’re in Miami for one day, we’ll be left with two regulation-sized large suitcases and the usual carry on bags. We’ll then meet the airline baggage restrictions in both weight and size. The most we’ll pay is the standard fees for two checked bags, where applicable. 

On May 21st, we’ll fly back to Barcelona, Spain from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Emirates Airlines, which allows two checked bags per person in coach at no additional charge.  Many other airlines we’ll use, charge $50 per bag or, only $50 for the 2nd checked bag.  Prior to flying, we’ll check the weight of our bags as we’re packing on our trusty mini travel scale to ensure we won’t incur outrageous overweight fees.

I know, reading this may be confusing. But, it’s no more confusing to us than anyone planning a busy schedule whether working, retired, have children at home, grown children, grandchildren, or are caring for senior parents and relatives.  Somehow, we manage to keep it all straight.

It’s surprising how heartily vegetation grows in sand.

Back to the veranda…we researched, we talked, we laughed, we consulted our budget, we calculated foreign exchange rates, and much to our surprise, we discovered not only a viable option for March 1, 2014, to May 15, 2014, but a particular option causing me to do my usual “jumping up and down.” Tom, of course, has the usual non-assuming smirk on his face.

Contacting the owner with a proposal, we anxiously awaited a response. With a six-hour time difference between Belize and the owner’s location, we anticipated it could be a few days until we received a response. 

This morning, hearing back from the owner, we negotiated an acceptable arrangement for us all, much to our delight.  Today, we’ll receive the contract via email subsequently paying the reasonable 15% deposit by PayPal.  Once this is completed, hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll tell you all about it with photos and all the delicious details. 

Of course, we don’t want to “jump the gun” until it’s a “done deal!”

Please check back tomorrow!

Goodbye party with our Minnesota friends…

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There’s something magical about the sunset over water anywhere in the world.
As darkness falls, the sunset drew all of our attention.

It was a small gathering of friends to celebrate the almost completed new construction house that we described in the post of March 7th and to say goodbye “for now,” as Nancy and Roger, our new Minnesota friends departed Belize this morning.

From left to right, Ian, Bill, Nancy, and Roger, celebrating friendship and the near completion of the amazing home they’ve built.

See our post of March 7th in the archives on the right side of our homepage in our blog for details on this artfully designed and meticulously built single-family residence, listed on MLS in Belize.

The temperature was comfortable, the no-see-ums less active and the sunset breathtaking as we stood atop the architecturally interesting outdoor bar of the new home our friends are building, overlooking the lagoon and marina.  It couldn’t have been a more perfect evening.

In attendance beside Tom and I; Nancy and Roger; Bill, lifelong friend of Roger and construction manager on the house; Rene, the manager here at LaruBeya; Ian, a partner in the new house and builder, developer and owner of LaruBeya and  Al, owner of a substantial dredging company in Belize. The first five of us from Minnesota, the remaining three, all born and raised in Belize.

Tom and I at last night’s party.
That’s my guy!  The photo he took of me was so blurry that I didn’t post it, to avoid causing our readers dizzying effects.
A common thread we’ve heard time and again from citizens of Belize has been the love of their country. Often they’ve traveled to other lands for periods of time, eventually returning to their beloved roots. 

As Ian and I chatted at length, his charming thick Belizean accent in full bloom, he told the story of his college education in the US and his eventual return to his homeland.  As we discovered from many Belizeans, the pace, the traffic, the massive population in big cities throughout the world, was far removed from the reality of their less hurried upbringing.

Ian explained that there are few, if any, nursing homes in Belize. Their “way” is to care for their old and disabled in their own homes and comforting environment, family, and friends banding together to provide the care, the meals, and the maintenance of their familiar surroundings.  What a pleasant thought. 

The wine and beer freely flowed as we nibbled on individual shrimp cocktails adorned with paper umbrellas, chips, and guacamole, all thoughtfully prepared by the chef at LaruBeya. 

This morning we said our final goodbyes to Nancy and Roger, all of us expressing the joy we experienced in the time we’ve spent together and the commitment to stay in touch. We’ve invited them to visit us wherever we may be so perhaps, once again, we may pick up where we left off, relishing in the treasures of friendship.

As I sit writing this today, only moments ago we heard a small plane flying overhead coming from the direction of the small Placencia airport. Surely, Nancy and Roger were on board as they made their way to the airport in Belize City to fly home to Minnesota. It was only 45 minutes ago we all hugged goodbye in the parking lot.

Thank you, Minnesota friends. Thank you, Belize friends. Thank you for enriching our lives and adding to the wealth of memories filling our hearts and minds forever.

Road trip today…Photos tomorrow…

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We’re packed and ready to head out the door to go to the office at Laru Beya to rent a newer air-conditioned Toyota SUV, model unknown at the moment, for a road trip on our own. 

The 12-hour car rental fee is $65, substantially less than such an outing on a tour. The places we’ve chosen to visit don’t require a guide. Had we chosen to go on a tour, the cost would have been upwards of $300 without the freedom of exploring on our own while taking photos at our discretion.

Our plan is to take the 2 1/2 hour scary road, the Hummingbird Highway, to head to the Cayo District, where a wealth of amazing sites may be seen.

With a map, directions, and information about the sites that we’ve printed on our portable PrintStik printer; our water shoes, camera, cold beverages, binoculars, bathing suits, towels, bug spray, we’re well-armed for the day.

Tom insists we bring our passports.  After all, we are in a foreign country.

On the return home, later in the day, we’ll stop for groceries and dinner.

Most likely, we won’t post our experiences and photos until tomorrow afternoon.  There should be many photos to share!!

Stay tuned for a full report of our day!

Socializing in the world…

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!
Happy birthday, Richard!

The sunrise this morning, after several cloudy mornings.

Yesterday, while lounging at the pool as the blazing sun finally peeked out through the dark billowy clouds, it dawned on us that our social life at Laru Beya has been more than we could have imagined.
Not only have we enjoyed the company of various guests coming and going on their one to two-week vacations, but we’ve had the pleasure of making new friends we hope to see again in the future.  After another great evening together on Friday night, we’ve delighted in our remarkable good fortune in making such fine friends.

In the future, living in various vacation homes throughout the world, we’ll have less of an opportunity to make new friends.  In most cases, we’ll be living in single-family homes often in remote areas.

In the case of South Africa, we’ll be a mile from the next closest house, although many braais (South African barbecues) are planned frequently in Marloth and Kruger Parks, as well as safaris and night, walk with guests staying in other houses and lodges.

Are we intimidated by the potential isolation?  We discussed this yesterday by the pool, after having been spoiled by living here and on our past two cruises, a virtual plethora of endless social interactions.

After all, both Tom and I are social butterflies, flitting about, seeking the sweet nectar of friendship, always a vital element in our lives both as individuals and as a couple. As with many of you, we have friends over a span of decades, from our youth, our work, and our neighborhoods.

Many remain in our hearts as sorrowful losses, having left us and their loved ones, too soon for their time.  Others have moved away not staying in close touch, as often happens. Some experience life changes causing them to step back from close relationships, no matter how often we reach out. 

Hello, sunny morning at last!

And others, they become and remain a part of the foundation of our lives.  Time passing with nary a peep to suddenly appear filling the air with memories, love, and laughter.  Ah, friendship.  A gift.  A treasure.

Isolated we will be, in Tuscany, Italy, in Kenya, in South Africa, and on the island of Madeira, Portugal.  There will be no shared pool or communal dining rooms beckoning new friendships to blossom.  There will be no neighbors in close proximity, like us, visitors for a short time, borrowing their culture, their morays, and a glimpse into their lifestyle. 

As we recall our two months in Scottsdale, Arizona, from November 4, 2012, to January 1, 2013, in a lovely condo complex with snowbirds yet to arrive for their winter break, we made no new friends, although we had an opportunity on several occasions to visit with three of Tom’s sisters and two spouses, a mere 35 minutes drive. 

The weather in Scottsdale, too cool for the pool, we languished in walks, dining out, and busying ourselves in our continuing endless planning for the future. We had a fabulous time, as we will again, however remote we may be.

Staying on our veranda to avoid gawking or disturbing, we took this photo of a wedding through the trees taking place next door.

Knowing that many of our friends and family members are sharing this experience with us brings great comfort.  Many of them stay in touch via Facebook, email, and Skype. Recently, Tom received a Skype call with video while several of his retired Minnesota railroad friends met for their usual weekly breakfast. It was almost as if he were there, sitting in the big booth, sipping hot cups of coffee with laughter and idle chatter ringing through the air.  Ah, friendship.

The fortunate part of it all, my best friend will always be at my side wherever we may be nurturing, comforting, laughing, playing, and reveling in the wonders of today and that which is yet to come tomorrow. A gift. A treasure.

It’s our blog’s one year anniversary…Thanks readers!

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January 21, 2013 as we prepared to board our second cruise.  Yep, we’re unloading three of the large bags when we dock in Miami for 10 hours on April 13, 2013.

Originally, when we started writing this blog last March, as we (I write and research. Tom, now retired, does most of the research and fact-checking) muddled our way through the endless details of planning our worldwide travels, the intention was to allow our family and friends to easily see where we are and what we’re doing.

As the detailed research continued, we started sharing some of the valuable links that aided us in finding our choice of locations, vacation home rentals, cruises, and potential hazards and obstacles along the way. 

If in the process of writing this blog, we inspire one reader to further their own research for their travels, whether, for a week or a lifetime, we’d be delighted.

Little did we know that a year later we’d have readers from all over the world in the 10’s of thousands.  What?  How did they find us? 

Every blog post and web page have a number of keywords associated with a particular entry.  Hang on, this is more complicated than you’d want to read here.  Here’s a link further explaining KEYWORDS, in case you’re interested and aren’t familiar with the word in reference to the web.  Keywords, may in fact have been how many readers have stumbled across us.

Another way is “word of mouth.” While on the cruise through the Panama Canal we met a lovely couple from Malaysia.  At that point, the blog stats (which I can review at any time) hadn’t indicated any readers from Malaysia.  Lo and behold, three days after the cruise ended, I observed two readers from Malaysia.  A few days later, there were 78 readers in Malaysia.  It grew exponentially from there to over 700 readers in Malaysia thus far.

Imagine, that your senior parent is considering an extended vacation and we’ve discussed how we are handling our prescriptions abroad.  You forward the link to that post to them.  They read it, forwarding it to their neighbor who is also considering travel.  It goes on and on.

For this, we are grateful.  Why does it matter to us that it grows?  It’s exciting!  It’s with the same enthusiasm one feels when sharing a photo or comment on Facebook. We feel “connected.”  Those of us Facebook fans, such as ourselves, enjoy the chatter, the laughter, the insight, the photos, and the opinions of others.  Seeing the smiling faces of our grandchildren, other family members and friends keep us from feeling so far away.

A few have asked, “Why do you have advertisers on your blog?  And, what do you get from that?”  Advertisers may, in time, offset some of the costs associated with maintaining a blog:  web hosting, domain name fees, and blog designer fees, all of which expenses we must maintain.  However, it takes considerable time and many more readers than we have at present to actually generate an income. 

Yesterday, March 14th was the actual one year anniversary.  I had planned to write about it yesterday but got sidetracked with our “Jell-O” searching story. Ah, the joys of retirement combined with world travel.  The only timetables we must meet are those when moving to a new location predicated by flight times, cruise times, train times, ferry times, and cab times. 

Oh, there’s one more. Every Friday night we take our once-a-week Malaria pill with dinner. Life is good. 

Thanks for sharing this journey with us. Keep hanging out with us.  Lots more to follow and, in 26 days we’re off to our next adventure, two Carnival cruises back to back!

Reading books on Kindle app…Mindless drivel..

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Today, we met Cody, a Maltese, while lounging at the pool as he was having his swimming lesson. 

Constantly busy in my “old life” I seldom took the time to get outside my head long enough to read a novel. I always felt compelled that reading time “must” be reserved for educational nonfiction books.

I learned a lot but never allowed myself the luxury of curling up in a comfy chair, legs wrapped in a soft fluffy afghan along with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee or tea at my side. Would those days ever come?

As you can easily gather from reading this blog, which many of you relate to, that the pace of my life was comparable to being in a race, a continuous mission of beating my last record. Ultimately in time, frustration surpassed endurance, and frustration won. The record could not be broken.

We saw this iguana today.  It was about 3′ long.

That life was full but surprisingly rich with love, times of great pleasure and a general sense of contentment. I assumed “this is who I am” and “this is who I will always be.” 

Not the case.  Everything has changed.  I read novels.  Which novels?  Irrelevant. I simply read novels on the Kindle app on my Android phone, by the pool, in bed at night, when awakening too early in the morning to get up and often while sitting on the veranda in the shade, the sound of the sea, nary a distraction.  Tom reads novels on his phone as well.  How did this happen?

Away from the self imposed flurry of excessive activity, I am finally free to indulge myself in this seeming luxury. I will admit, I’ve recently enjoyed reading mindless drivel, not necessarily novels of great esteem but novels that merely hold my interest, able to release me from the endless stream of thinking and planning, analyzing and studying and sorting and categorizing. 

As a fast reader, I could easily consume an entire novel in three or four days but I choose to savor it, spreading it out over six or seven days, to avoid the average $10 per downloaded book resulting in over $100 a month, not a practical expenditure in our current lifestyle of ongoing world travel.

No books to haul around the world, no bookstore to drive to, no tax to be paid, no bookcase to fill with completed or partially completed books to eventually be sold at a garage sale. The drawback? Not easily returned. 

The solution to avoid partially read books? Taking advantage of the “free sample” of the books offered at online bookstores (I use Amazon.com), reading the story line to ensure its to one’s liking and most of all, reading some of the 100’s of reviews online. Yes, I know, every one’s taste is different. But, if a book is rated at “one star” by 600 readers, the handwriting is on the wall. Don’t bother.

The past several days while recovering from our near disastrous fall on the collapsed steps, my most recent novel, has made the required icing and resting easy at best. Still able to read on my newly cracked phone, has not held me back. 

Mindless drivel? Yes! The resulting relaxation, stress reduction and escape from my overactive thought process has brought considerable pleasure as well as this new way of living, in the world, on the move with my equally well read travel companion, husband and friend. 

We read different books but we’re on the same page.

Stuff happens…We’re injured…

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This is how the steps collapsed under our feet.

It was Thursday this week, the night of our anniversary. We came back to our villa after a lovely dinner to relax and enjoy the windy, bug free evening. It was 8:30 PM. 

Opening the wide sliding glass door, the  powerful ocean breezes rushed in filling our living room with the fresh scent of the ocean and the thick evening humidity, pleasing to our senses. 

Suddenly, I remembered that I’d left out a few kitchen towels to dry on the canvas lounge chair on the veranda. With the strong winds, I suggested to Tom that we venture outside to collect the towels and check out the status of the surf which wildly crashed in front of us.

Corner view of broken steps.

Still in our casual and comfortable dinner clothing as depicted in yesterday’s post with our anniversary photo, with me in flat sandals, we meandered out to the veranda in awe of the wind. The kitchen towels were about to blow away with one of them already on the ground. I grabbed two. Tom, gentleman that he is, grabbed the one askew on the ground.

Taking my hand, he led to off the wooden steps. As my foot hit the top step, a thought flashed through my mind, “Oh, I didn’t realize these sandals were wobbly.” I’d worn them many times and their flat arch support heels provided a stable step.  I don’t drink alcohol so I certainly wasn’t teetering.

Within a second, we were falling, crashing, banging.  In an instant, I found myself saying over and over, “Oh, my God!  Oh, my God!” On my way down, I hit my head on the strewn about wood, as the stairs broke apart, collapsing under us, then hit me mid-back and then…my tailbone. “Oh, my God,” I muttered again. Tom had also fallen. Immediately, our attention turned to one another.

Left view of the steps where we fell.
He’d cut and bruised his right shin, droplets of blood seeping through his white pants, one of the few white pants he wears on the cruise ships. How will I get the blood out, I thought, good laundress that I am, without a washer?

Lying in a pile atop the crumbled stairs, as Tom nervously gather me in his arms, I immediately assessed my situation,  My first thought, “Can I move my legs?” Yes, I can.  “Can I turn and move my torso?”  Yes, I can.  “Can I get up?” With Tom’s arms gently coaxing me to a standing position, I stood up. We went inside to assess our injuries.

Tom’s right shin was scraped and bruised, comparable to the knee scrapes we experienced as kids from falling off of our bikes.  No broken bones, no stitches required. My injuries were less obvious having banged my head, my mid-back and my tail bone on the jutting chunks of collapsed wood on the way down.

I could walk, I could bend, I could twist. There were no cuts, no obvious signs of injuries. Hopefully, I thought, my injuries would result in severe bruising. 

Should this accident have occurred at a resort in the US, ambulances would have been called, staff would have gathered around and perhaps, one might have contacted an attorney. The steps broke under two normal weight individuals.

Side view of steps.

We could have easily notified the security guard or the restaurant staff. Instead, we chose to tend to our injuries notifying management in the morning. These steps were for our exclusive use and could easily wait until morning. Most certainly, the salty air and intense humidity, rotted the wood and lessened the hold by the nails. We blame no one. 

Tom fashioned an inventive ice pack for me and I parked myself on the not-so-comfy sofa after taking two Aleve, for the remainder of the evening.  Without a doubt, we were both worried. Would my condition worsen over the night or the next few days? 

Much to my surprise I slept through the night, carefully lying on my side with a pillow propped up against my back to avoid turning over. Awakening at 6 am, the first thought in my mind was the frightening fall and secondly, the food I was yet to prepare for our share of the upcoming Minnesota Pot Luck Dinner with our Minnesota neighbors on either side of us. 

I didn’t feel up to cooking but decided that standing for 10 to 15 minutes at a time would do more good than harm while I’d take a break from the ice pack. Neither the sofa or nor the chairs in our villa provide good back support to warrant sitting for an extended period.

Tom helped in the kitchen and the time breezed by. By 10:30 am, we had most of the food prepared.  We decided it was time to inform management of our “accident” and the necessity of repairing the collapsed stairs. 

Of course, the conscientious staff was highly concerned and anxious to tend to our needs.  We only asked that they launder Tom’s bloody pants and repair the steps. Later in the day, Tom’s meticulously laundered and ironed pants were returned.

Within a matter of minutes, workers appeared at our villa to attend to the repairs.  With the loud noise of the hammering and pounding we decided to sit by the pool. Another gorgeous day was calling to us. 

Gingerly positioning myself on the un-padded lounge chair by the pool, I knew I wouldn’t last long. The cool water of the unheated pool provided some relief but less than an hour later, we walked back to our villa, determined to park myself with ice on the padded lounge chair on the veranda until it was time to shower and dress for the party. The workers were still pounding. We didn’t care. 

We were pleased with management’s handling of the situation. They were both respectful and very concerned, again checking with us over the next 48 hours.  There’s nothing more we would have asked of them.

On the way back to our villa, I dropped my smartphone on the cement cracking the screen in several places.

Having only purchased the no-contract phone for about $900 in December and now unable to easily read the Kindle app at night in bed, my heart sank.  My phone had been a constant companion while reading by the pool, the veranda or sitting in the chairs on the beach outside our door. Still able to receive a WiFi signal on our phones without a contract, I’d also been able to easily use Skype on my phone as discussed in the Skype post of several days ago.

Tom, bless his patient demeanor said nary a word, other than, “Don’t worry, lover. We’ll figure it out.” Gosh, I’m traveling the world with the right guy!

The remainder of the day whisked by and suddenly we realized it was time to get ready for the party.  Feeling better from the ice, the rest and the Aleve, I was confident we could go and have a good time.

It was not only a good time but a great time. The laughter, the chatter, the Minnesota stories got my mind off of my aching body. The drinks, the food, the ambiance in their lovely “owned” villa, found us all in a frenzy of endless story telling. We had a blast! 

Our new Minnesota friends kindly offered to mail my phone to a repair shop in the US when they return on March 22nd. I graciously declined, not wanting to impose. But after careful consideration, we came up with a plan. Maybe we would take them up on their generous offer.

Here’s our idea:
1.  Find a reputable smart phone screen repair company online.  Contact them alerting them that my phone will be arriving the week of March 23-30 for repair.
2.  Prepay by credit card for the repairs.
3.  Place the phone in a padded envelope with the repair company’s address.
4.  Give our Minnesota friends postage to mail our phone to the repair company.
5.  Instruct the repair company to rush the order, mailing it our mailing service…to go into the box being shipped to us for pickup on April 13th in Miami when our ship arrives.

This should work regarding the phone.  As for me, we’re hoping my injuries will resolve in a week or so, bringing me back to my former feeling-well self, cheerful, joyful without a worry in the world. 

In the interim, there’s no doubt that we’re guarded. Today, its more tender than yesterday, not uncommon in bruising injuries. I sit here, as we “speak” Tom’s nifty ice pack in tow, which he thoughtfully adjusts every 20 minutes or so, from my back to my neck to my tailbone.

Ah, yes.  _ _ _ _ happens!  Everywhere we go, there we are. We take with us, wherever we may be, all of life’s challenges, mishaps, heartbreaks and sorrows. No one is exempt. 

The difference for some, is the ability to tap into one’s well of strength and determination along with an innate desire to carry on.  I can only hope and pray that no matter what we encounter on our journey, that we’ll continue to strive for that strength and determination.

Be well, my friends.

More visas needed???…Check, check and recheck!…

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Our cruise company sent us this email message a few weeks ago:

“Dear Mrs. Lyman,

Thank you again for booking with Vacations To Go!

I wanted to send a quick email to remind you that one or more of the ports of
call, you will be visiting, will require a Visa.

If you are a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident or a Canadian citizen
residing in Canada and have not contacted CIBT, to verify your visa
requirements for this sailing, please contact them as soon as possible.

All other, non-US or Canadian citizens must verify proof of citizenship, and
visa requirements with the embassy, consulate or immigration office of the
countries in their cruise itinerary.

Vacations To Go has partnered with CIBT, one of the nation’s largest passport
and visa services companies in the country, to assist U.S. citizens, permanent
residents and Canadian citizens in obtaining any required visas or a passport.
Visas may be purchased within six months of the start of the vacation but,
please be aware that for some countries it may take up to 30 days to secure a
visa.

If you are a US citizen or permanent resident and need to obtain a visa,
click here.

If you are a US citizen and need to obtain a passport, click here.

If you are a Canadian Citizen residing in Canada and need to obtain a visa,
click here.

For visa or passport questions, call CIBT customer service at 1-877-841-8602.
Be sure to identify yourself as a Vacations To Go customer and reference
account 45585. CIBT is available from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST, Monday
through Friday.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

Joaquin Contreras
Travel Counselor
Vacations To Go
jcontreras@vacationstogo.com“

We have total faith in our cruise counselor, Joaquin, and his company Vacations to Go for providing us with the most updated important information, superb customer service, and the best possible pricing.  I imagine, that the above letter is a standard letter sent to upcoming cruise passengers via the cruise lines on their behalf resulting in the “travel agents” presenting the information to their clients. 

Upon reading this letter, we followed the links to CIBT, a highly reputable visa and passport company per online reviews, the Better Business Bureau reports, and recommendations by VTG. 

Previously, we had used  VisaHQ, a company located on Embassy Row in Washington, DC in order to obtain our second passports (to find detailed information about the necessity of having a second US passport, please type “second passports” in the search box on our home page to go directly to our posts regarding the necessity of a second passport.)

With these links and information on hand, we proceeded to go to CIBT to set up an online account.  When asked, “what country will you be visiting?” I was stymied.  With four countries requiring a visa in our upcoming cruises through June 2013, my hope and expectation would be that we could apply for all four at once. 

Those countries requiring visas include Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. The other dozen or more countries in our upcoming eight cruises in 2013 (two more scheduled so far for 2014) do not require a visa for stays under 30 days. 

The dilemma we faced after receiving this letter:
1.  To apply for a visa, one must send their passport to the processing company along with a stack of ancillary documents, based on each country’s particular requirements.
2.  To avoid paying extra processing fees, as much as $150 per visa, one may apply early to ensure the documents are received in time for the cruises and…to get one’s passport back with the documents. When we ordered our second passports they were sent to us by registered mail to our mailing service in Nevada which we picked up when we went to Las Vegas for Christmas.
3.  Thus, without having established an address here in Belize and the potential for slow transit from the US to Central America, it’s likely should we try to apply now for June, there’s a high risk of not receiving our passports and visas in time before we depart on April 9th.

After Tom and I discussed this at length, after confirming that we did in fact need visas for these four countries we’ll visit on our cruises from May to June, we came up with this plan:
1.  Complete all the paperwork while here using our portable printer and scanner.
2.  Begin the process of applying online while here, leaving out the mailing of our passports until we get to Miami on April 13th when our ship, the Carnival Liberty, docks at the Port of Miami for approximately 10 hours.  
3.  Grab a cab, heading directly to a UPS store near the pier, mail our documents registered mail to CIBT, pick up our forwarded awaiting mail and packages we’d pre-arranged to arrive on April 13th, mail our excess luggage to my sister in Los Angeles, get back on the ship and continue on to the next cruise.
4.  In the packet to CIBT, we’ll have requested the visa and 2nd passports to be sent to our hotel in Barcelona Spain, where we’ll stay one night, May 5th, boarding our 15-night cruise in the morning through the Suez Canal to see the Great Pyramids, Giza, Cairo, The Sphinx, and more (will post details later), where three of the four visas are required. 

Whew! This is cutting it very close…one night in Barcelona with documents being delivered in a very narrow window. Of course, the hotel would gladly hold the package for us for a few days.  But what if it didn’t arrive, or was lost? 

Suddenly, we both felt a twinge of stress.  Our only piece of mind would be to have them sent from the US to Barcelona, the quickest, most expensive way.  We were willing to bear this expense. And yet, there still was no guarantee.

Our goal thus far has been to keep stress at a minimum, avoiding that angst-ridden feeling one takes on in bed in the middle of the night, interrupting sleep, a familiar feeling from our “old lives”, a feeling that seems unavoidable in the hustle and bustle of daily life.  

Lounging on the veranda yesterday, creating a definitive plan we both could live with, a thought occurred to us simultaneously; let’s call CIBT explaining our dilemma and see what suggestions they may offer. 

Since we no longer have a cell phone plan, using Skype and SIM cards as needed, we knew we could call their toll-free number using Skype, incurring no cost at all.  We discovered much to our delight, that we can call any business in the US without incurring any costs, as long as they have a toll free number.  They answer on their regular phone systems while we call on Skype for free.  Nice.  Thanks, SKYPE!  

Dialing their toll-free number, we were connected to a representative within 30 seconds. The call was clear with a bit of an echo.  Explaining our dilemma to the representative, she asked us to kindly wait and she’d be right back.  Watching the clock on Skype, she returned in less than a minute asking us the names of the cruise lines for these two upcoming cruises.  We responded that the May 6th cruise was with Royal Caribbean and the second was with Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Again, we were on hold for a short time. She returned to the phone with glee in her voice, “I have good news for you!” We held our breath. “You will not need pre-arranged visas on either of your cruises. You’ll receive them on board your ship at the time you disembark to go on your excursions.  Both of these cruise lines have an arrangement with these countries to provide visas at their ports of call.”

We squealed with delight.  Tom, or shall I say, “doubting Thomas” wanted more verification of this, worrywart that he is.  Immediately, we contacted Joaquin, our cruise guy by email.  An hour later, we received an email confirming that CIBT is correct, we don’t need to obtain visas in advance for the four countries, not always the case, but in these particular two situations, we could relax.

Had we not “called” receiving this valuable information, we would have followed the procedures online, paying the expenses of upwards of $600, while dealing with the stress of the timing.

Who knows how to travel the world for 5-10 years or more, managing all the details, documents, financial and medical concerns?  We don’t.  But we’re learning, day by day in bite-sized pieces with so much more ahead of us.  We’ll flounder, we’ll make mistakes, we’ll trust when we shouldn’t and wrongfully mistrust when we should.

Lesson learned.

A walk on the beach…Changing our ways…

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This photo of Tom clearly depicts our quiet, contemplative, uncomplicated lives, relatively free of stress. 

Tom always jokes that he never imagined that his retirement would include walking other the necessary steps from his comfy chair to the bathroom, the kitchen, the bedroom, and the yard.  Yes, he was quite the handyman, fixing and fussing as needed, walking about the house.  We never took a walk together in our neighborhood.

As I began planning our worldwide travels over a year ago I budgeted for rental cars for most locations fearing that Tom would seldom want to walk to nearby restaurants, shops, and pubs.

Living in Belize for an extended period, the cost of a rental car or even a golf cart was prohibitive.  After all, we are on the secluded peninsula of Placencia, a four-hour drive from Belize City where our ship arrived. 

Upon arriving, we resigned ourselves to occasionally renting a golf cart as needed.  Much to our liking, we now have our own cab driver Estevan, whom I’ve mentioned here, who will take us anywhere we’d like to go for reasonable rates during daylight hours leaving us to “hoof it” for dinners out at night.

With multiple good restaurants nearby requiring no more than a 10-minute walk each way, our transportation needs are fulfilled.  We dine out two or three times a week and love rotating our favorites, especially on the nights they offer their stupendous buffets.  If we go on an adventure, transportation is provided.  So, we walk.  Tom walks.

After moving to Laru Beya on February 5th with a massive expanse of white sand beach in front of our villa, Tom surprised me when within a few days of arriving he suggested we walk the beach, a popular tourist outing.  I always treasured walking in our old neighborhood with our precious little dogs to their favorite spot, Poop Park, often walking with our equally wonderful neighbors and their little dogs. 

As long as the temperature was above 10 degrees we walked. The pads of their little feet would quickly freeze at lower temperatures.  Often, our World Wide Willie would stop dead in his tracks looking up at me with sorrowful eyes that asked me to carry him home when he’d had enough and of course, I did.  In the snow, on the ice, I carried him home, all 22 pounds of him, often as much as a 1/2 mile.  I loved walking.  Tom, not so much, having never walked the neighborhood with me once in 22 years.

Each day we began to walk along the beach at a lofty pace, in the water or on the sand, carefully watching for stray rocks, shells and bits of glass, engaged in idle chatter or in quiet contemplation. 

We can change, can’t we?  Life circumstances often unplanned, force us to look at our often rigid ways, leaving us open to change, to grow and to learn.  Some take advantage of the opportunity, others do not.  We revel in watching each other depart from that which we knew as familiar and comfortable, to the new people we are fast becoming. 

The chairs here aren’t comfy, the kitchen supplies are limited, finding foods for our way of eating is challenging, not owning cars is peculiar and no Walgreen’s is daunting. But we change to accept the differences, growing and learning in the process, all the while reveling in our personal ability to adapt. 

As I over-packed for almost a year in Minnesota all the things that “I couldn’t live without” much of which is now packed to be shipped to my sister in Los Angeles when we get to Miami on April 13th, I realized that I too could let go of things, learning to live without the comfortable and the familiar.

All the kind and generous advice others gave us regarding our excess luggage could only have meaning to us when we discovered it on our own, in our own time, on our own terms.  We’ve changed.  We’ll continue to change.

Suddenly, we look at one another with new eyes, with a new interest, knowing that wherever we maybe we’ll learn new ways of life, we’ll release old ways that don’t work in a new environment and, without a doubt,  we’ll walk, we’ll walk and we’ll walk.